More Strange Behavior From the Freshman Roomie

How’s it going, everyone? So in my last post I told you about my first experiences with my first roommate in college. I really thought that she was just getting used to living away from home and that maybe she just dealt with stress in a strange way. I did my best to try and include her in things that I did on campus because she didn’t seem to be making any friends (or at least I didn’t know of any) but she always turned down my invitations. She went to class I think, but would always come back to the room and play that game on her laptop. We barely spoke to each other, not because I didn’t try. I really did try to get to know her. She just kept to herself and kept her earphones in her ears listening to who knows what.

So a few weeks into school, a couple of my friends walked back to my dorm room with me after class. I just needed to change clothes and then we were going to go hiking at Oak Mountain, a state park about 30 minutes from school. I opened the door to the room, expecting Lindsey to be there at her desk, but she was nowhere to be found. I knew it wasn’t time for her to be in class, but I didn’t really think too much about it, except that I was glad she was out doing something instead of being holed up in the room. My friends sat down on my bed while I ran into the bathroom to change.

All of a sudden, I heard a loud shriek and then what sounded like things being thrown against the wall. I rushed out of the bathroom to see Lindsey throwing her books at my friends! She started yelling at them to get out of her room or she was going to do more than throw books at them. I tried to jump in the middle but she started flinging her arms and yelling at the top of her lungs.

My friends ran out of the room and she calmed down immediately. I told her that they were my friends and that she shouldn’t have treated them that way. All she said was “How was I supposed to know they were your friends? You were no where to be found. They could have been trying to steal all of our stuff” and then walked to her desk, put her earphones in, and wouldn’t say anything else.

This girl obviously had some issues, I just didn’t know what to do. I apologized to my friends, of course, who were standing out in the hallway shaking. They couldn’t believe that I lived with someone that crazy. I felt the need to defend her because she was my roommate, but didn’t really know what to say.

A few days later, I came back from class to find Lindsey sitting on her bed talking to a stuffed animal. She was having a very serious conversation with the little dog, talking about her class she just got back from and how she and her mother had gotten into a fight on the phone this morning.

I know she saw me walk in but she didn’t look up or speak to me, just kept talking to the stuffed dog. I sat on my bed and just watched her for a few minutes, but finally had to speak up. I asked her if she was doing alright or if she needed to talk to anyone about anything. Her response was that she had her dog to talk to and that it was none of my business. Ok, girl…I was just trying to be nice and be a friend, but I guess she didn’t need any friends.

I thought about going to the residence advisory board to see if I could switch roommates, but decided that would probably hurt her feelings, and I also didn’t want to put anyone else in a weird situation. I decided to make it my mission to get to the bottom of what was going on with her, and to make her open up to me and become my friend. I mean, we did have a long time to live with each other!

Things never became “great” with Lindsey, but I did let a lot of her strange behaviors roll off my shoulders. She ended up leaving school at the end of the year and I haven’t seen or talked to her since. I just hope that she got some kind of professional help for her weird mood swings and anger issues that I saw glimpses of over the course of the year.